ORWO Direct Positive Paper

Here's one for those with long experience of the photographic world ...

I've come into possession of a pack of ORWO DPP 111 paper in 10x8.

I'm guessing this is 20-30 years old, and it wasn't stored refrigerated (but equally it has not been exposed) so I'm not expecting much, but I can't find any data about it.

Straight from the pack (i.e. unexposed, undeveloped), it is a rather gorgeous shade of pale fuchsia.

Unexposed and developed in an ordinary print developer (Fotospeed DV10) it doesn't begin to show any development for about a minute, and takes about 5 to come to a medium-grey. It doesn't develop anywhere near to a full black.

Exposed to a daylight bulb for several minutes and developed ditto, it retains a pink tinge after fixing.

So, I'm presuming that either this isn't the same sort of beast as Harman DPP, or it's age-fogged beyond use, or perhaps both.

Hi pdeex, I just checked ORWO Formulae book, edition 1986. It's mostly processing oriented book for all oRWO materials. It mention "Black and white paper for technical purposes" ORWO document paper, DP but there is no more specific info for processing. It's ORWO instruction 2361. For processing they recommend N120. It was "regular" ORWO positive developer. 111 is most likely surface and paper thickness designation. Did you process any unexposed paper, just to see it's Dmax? Good luck!

Thanks for the pages.
I don't possess any sort of densitometer so can't measure Dmax/Dmin. However I did say

Unexposed and developed in an ordinary print developer (Fotospeed DV10) it doesn't begin to show any development for about a minute, and takes about 5 to come to a medium-grey. It doesn't develop anywhere near to a full black.

By eye, perhaps V/VI at best

@AgX

Exposed, developed and fixed it is white but not pure white (perhaps IX) and retains a slight pink tinge.

@jnanian -- ha! yes, I considered developing it in caffenol at first but thought I'd better try it in more traditional chemicals first I don 't eat many onions though ...
My main thought was to use it in my 5x4 pinhole, so I've cut some and loaded a couple of backs.

Last edited by pdeeh; 04-19-2013 at 02:12 AM. Click to view previous post history.

Hi pdeex, I just checked ORWO Formulae book, edition 1986. It's mostly processing oriented book for all oRWO materials. It mention "Black and white paper for technical purposes" ORWO document paper, DP but there is no more specific info for processing.

Your paper is surely fogged. As it's a positive paper it should give a straight black when you develop an unexposed sheet.
I have used it some time ago. I developed it in Adotol Konstant (which is the same as Calbe N113). Usually it gives straigt blacks in this developer and it's quite contrasty, so you have to do some kind of preflashing to get a normal contrast.

@jnanian -- ha! yes, I considered developing it in caffenol at first but thought I'd better try it in more traditional chemicals first I don 't eat many onions though.

noo not onions but shallots i am not sure if they are persian shallots or "regular ones" that darkroomexperimente used, probably "regular ones" ...
it might be worth stinking up your whole house just for fun
the 2nd link i posted is a kodak reversal developer ...

fun!

Last edited by jnanian; 04-19-2013 at 07:19 AM. Click to view previous post history.

Yep I did look at Ian's thread, funnily enough I have been thinking about trying reversal recently (just for the hell of it). Ilford has a recipe on their site which requires fewer steps and fewer (and less nasty, more easily available) chemicals than that Kodak one.